Razor-stropping device.



A. M01). STUART. RAZOR STROPPING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED .1m. 15, 1911.

Patented Dec. 10, 1912.

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ad it 7265866 -A.JMD. STUART; RAZOR ST ROPPING DEVICE." 'APPILIOATION TILED AUG; 15, 1911.

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Men-ted Dec. 1'0,.- 1912.

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ALEXANDER MGDONALD STUART, F ROSENHEIM,

INVERNESS, SCOTLAND.

RAZOR-STROPPING DEVICE.

' To all whom it may concern:

' that of the stropping surface;

ment of the blade holder is preferablysuch' ing attached to or in the same direction.

'tions of the stropping surface-and the blade I v vlce. Fig, 3 is a plan of a modified .the. device. Fig. c'represents a cross section Be it known that I, ALEXANDER MCDON- ALD STUART, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Rosenheim, Island Bank, Inverness, Scotland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements Relating to Bazor-Stropping Devices, of which the following'is a specification.

- This invention relates to razor stropping devices particularly those intended for the blades of safety razors, and has reference to devices of the kind in which a stropping surface of disk or drum form and a blade holder are capable of rotary movement relatively to each other, the blade holder being adjustably mounted upon a radial arm or in a bracket or bearing situated near the stropping surface so that one or other side of the blade can be brought into contact therewith. In devices. of the drum type it is common to provide means for tilting over the blade-holder about its bearings at each reversal of the stropping motion, but in devices of the disk type the stropping of the two sides. of one and the same edge of the blade has necessitated an adjustment of the blade iii-the blade holder. I

According to the present invention the stropping device comprises a strapping surface of disk form and a radial arm to which the blade holder is hinged o-r pivoted in such a way that after one side of the blade has been stropped by a relative rotary motion between the radial arm and the stropping surface, the stropping of the other side of the blade can, after a simple adjustment of the blade holder about its hinge or pivot, be stropped'in the same manner. By the term radial arm I mean an arm mounted upon a bearing having its axis coincident with The adjustthat the radial arm can always be rotated The relative posimay be so chosen that a heel and 'toemotion is also involved in the circular motion of the blade and blade holder.

A convenient form of the device comprises a circularbase of woodor metal have laid on it a flat disk or ring of prepared stropping leather or other suitable material;

member which in turn is rotatably mounted upon the radial arm.

Specification of Letters Patent;

the blade is fixed in holder which is pivotally mounted upon The manner in which the-blade holder and the aforesaidmember are mounted is such that the respective axes Patented Dec.1 0,1912. Application filed August 15, 1911. Serial No. 644,178

about which theyare'capab'le of turning a reat right angles to each other, thereby'com stit'uting a kind ofuniversal jointand thusenabling the edge of the blade when brought into contact with the stroppingsurface to take an even bearing upon the same. The radlal arm 1s p1voted at the center of, the base that carries the stroppin'g surface, the

axis of the pivot being perpendicular to thesaid stropping surface, so

blade may-be capable of being continuously that the holder and rotated about the pivot during the stropping operation. -.If'the blade is so mounted in the holder that the edge of theblade lying on the stropping reference to the axis of rotation, the effect is practically the same as if the blade were being stropped on an ordinary flat strop of infinite length with its edge the Whole time at right angles to the direction of its motion.

surface is radial considered with If, however, the blade is so mounted in the 4 holder that the edge is inclined .to its radial positlonthe effect is the same as if the'blade were being stropped on theinfinite flatstrop;

referred to above, but wit-hits edge'at an angleto the directionof motion. The degree of this angle will not be the same at all parts of the edge owmgto the difference in curvature of thepaths-followed by the dif{ ferent'portions of the edge, but in-practice this is unimportant. I am thus enabled-to obtain the desirable efi'ect'of a heel and toe motion or an effect closely approximatingto the same, without the necessity of employing separate mechanism to procure such motion.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into. effect,-v

I will now describe the same more fully with reference to' the accompanying drawings, in 1 which r Figure 1 is ,a plan andFiglQ an elevation of one constructional, form of the de-,

form of of a furthe'r modification. Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate one '-form'- of blade gripper v or as. it'may betermed, for inser- 'A- is the base of the device' and A' is a small handle thereon suitably shaped for being pressed by the .fingeror'thumb so as to i hold the base firmly during the stropping of a blade. A is a ring of prepared stroppingleathei' or other suitable material covering the base A.

B is theblade holder, rotatablymountedin a member C which is fixed by a screw C or otherwise to the endof aspindle D. This.

spindle is carried in bearings by the radial arm E and has coiled around it a spring ID sertion of the finger of the operator when he wishes to exert the necessary pressure to rotate the mechanism. 1

' The blade holder may be designed to re;- ceive blades of any particular shape or'size, but in order to adapt the device for use with different blades, I findit convenient toem ployv..what I call adapters, these being metal clips of a known kind but'suitably designed for the reception of the blades and tor insertion into the blade holder proper.

In'Figs. l and'2 a broad backed single edged blade'B is shown with the blade holder B shaped to receive'it, while in Figs. 5, 6and 7.two-difi'erent kinds of. adapter are illus trated. The adapter shown in Figs. 5 and 6 is suited for double edged blades of the kind that are formed with holes for engagement with positioning pins on the usual razor. handle; it consists of two pivoted metal lates' FF", the lower late F having two bosses f f,'adapted to project through the slots'in the blade and through two recesses.

f, f, in the upper plate F" when the latter 1s swung about its pivot into position upon the blade. The blade and adapter are then fitted into position in the blade holder as seen in Fig. 6. In Fig. 7 a modified form of adapter is shown adapted fora narrow r. backed single-edged blade; it consists of a mere sheetof metal bentinto the form of a cli 1 swing to the blade. holder'being situated in such a" position that the blade is inclined to a true radial direction, the effect of stropping is similar to that which would be 0btained by stropping upon an ordinary flatstrop of infinite length with-the edge of the blade inclined to the direction of motion.

i In order to st'rop' the blade upon one side all'that is necessary is'to place the blade in osition in the holder, and rotate the same y applying the finger to the cup E \Vhen one side of the blade has been stropped sufiiciently, the otherside is presented to'the stropping' surface adjusting: the blade.

holder about the hinge or pivot that secures it to the radial arm.- The blade holder.

might for instance be. swung bodily around .the centerline of the radial arm until the opposite side of'the blade came in contact with the stropping surface, in which case the continued stropping action would of course be efi'ected by a rotation in the opposite direction to that previously adopted.

The constructionillustratedin Figs. 1 and 2, however, is simpler and avoids. the necessity of reversing the direction of rotation of the holder. In this construction, in order to reverse the blade, the tilting piece 1) is pressed, the blade holder'is swungthrough two right angles about its bearing inthe member G and the pressure onthe "tilting. piece D then removed. The'rotation is then c ntinued in the same direction as before. In orderto prevent any inJury to ,the'stropplng surface or the blade by an .accldental rotation ot'the holder in the wrong direction, means of. any lrnown kind may be employed for raising the blade away from the stropping surface immediately such motion commences. Such means may for example be similar to those already adopted on strepping devices of the reciprocating type used with ordinary fiat strops.

Razors of the ordinary type.may, tor the purposes of this invention, be' considered as single edged blades, and the arrangements described above for 'stropping" such blades may be employed, with such constructional modifications as may be necessary, to shop them. i v I It is sometimes advantageous, especially when very blunt. blades have to be dealt with, to have more than one kind of stropping surfaces This maybe achieved by pro viding a set of separate interchangeable rin s or disks presenting stropping surfaces di ering in effect. Analternative method, in the'case oftwo surfaces, is to cement one surfaceto one side of the mainbase and the second surface to the other side and .to so arrange the blade holder and the rotating mechanism that the base may be used either side up; a device 'ofthis kind is shown in Fig. 4 where A and A3 are the two stro'pping surfaces, and therotary part ofthe device, instead, of being mounted onra pivot pin as in Figs. 1 and 2, is provided; with a hub A for insertion into a hole inthe base Band its support being so arranged that the distance of the holder from the eenterof rptation can be varied to bring the blade in contact with the particular surface selected.

assumed that st In the foregoing descriptionit hasybeen ropping surface s flat,

that is to say, liie's-in one plane, but it will be understood that it might be mounted on a conical or frustum-shaped base, the apex being either above or below the general level ters Patent of the United States is 2- and in using the term disk in my claims I wish to include such obvious modifications in shape' When the apex is below the base, the appearance of the base may be that of a dish with a sloping brim. Instead of using the base in a horizontal p0- of the base,

I sition it may be mounted in bearings so as to lie in a vertical plane.

hat I claifn and deslre to secure by Let- 1. A razor stropping device comprising a circular base, stropping material supported thereby, an arm concentrically rotatable with respect to the base, a spindle rotatable about its own axis and mounted to lie along the said arm, a member secured to the outer end of the said A spindle, mounted upon the aforesaid member and r0.-

tatable about an axis transverse with respect to thespindle, and a spring arranged to thrust the edge of the blade holder toward .the stropping material.

, 2. A razor stroppmg-device, comprising a .circular base, stropping material supported thereby,

an arm concentrically rotatable with respect 'to the base, a spindle rotatable about its own axis and mounted tolie' along a member secured to'the outer endof r the said, s indle, a blade holder mounted upon the a oresaid member and rotatable about an axis at rightangles 'to the' spindle, ati-ltin end ofthe spin le,

the said arm,

and a spindle controlling spring arranged to thrust the edge of the blade holder toward the stropping material, 7

a blade holder piece mounted at the other theline of contact of the said edge with't'he" stropping surface, a tilting piece mounte at the other. end of the spindle, a spindle controlling spring arranged to thrustthe edge. of the blade'holder' towardthe stropping material, and a handle on the aforesaid, arm having a cup-shaped end.

4. A razor stroppi-ng fiat circular. base,- a pivot pin projecting upward from the center thereof, a ring of stropping material covering the base, an arm mounted r'otatably upon the-aforesaid pivot pin, a spi'n'dle rotatable about its own axis and mo'unted to lie. along the said arm 'at 'an' inclination to a a member secured totrue radial direction,

said spindle; a blade holder mounted upon the aforesaid member, and an axis at right'angles to the spindle, a tilting'piece-mounted at'the other end of the spindle, a spindle controlling spring arranged to thrust the edge of the blade holder toward the stropping material, and a han- ,dle '"or the aforesaid arm having a cupshaped end. y 'In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two'witnesses.

- ALEXANDER MCDONALD STUART.

' Witnesses:

' JOHN CAMERON,

1 WVI LIAM PAnL N.

dev ce, comprising a the outer end of the" rotatable about 

